I'm totally swamped with crap that needs to be done. That included today spent in Red Wing writing software for the PocketPC. It's proving an interesting change of pace to write for a specific device instead of the web or full-blown desktop.

There are lots of interesting challenges, including dependent apps that need to launch, multiple CAB file installations and a custom web browser I wrote to make the whole thing work. While frustrating at times, I'm pretty happy with the results.

This is exactly the kind of variety I was looking for when making the job switch in May.

Today I started a family tradition. I took my dad, brother and my 2 nephews to a Saints game. I'm hoping to make this an annual tradition for all of the guys in our family.

Because we all live all over the state, we tend not to all see each other except at Christmas and maybe one other time throughout the year. This gave us an opportunity to get together outside, do something fun, eat hot dogs and cheese curds (though I'm already regretting that), and generally hang out, just the guys for an afternoon.

The game was packed to capacity, but opened up after a few innings as the lightweights left. I don't understand going out to a baseball game for only 3 innings, but whatever. It gave us more room.

The Saints won handily (after a 7 run inning) and we had a good time. I was, however, surprised by the interest that the boys had in photography, particularly Taylor, who wanted to use my Canon digital SLR. At only 6 (I just know I'm somehow getting his exact age wrong), his hands were really too small to handle it, but, on his own, he asked me if there was some way I could help him hold the camera steady. I offered my hand as a tripod under the lens and he announced that a solution had been achieved, "Thanks, that works". He then pretty much filled up a memory card with photos, including this remarkable one of my dad. I'm really impressed with the shot he managed. And, this one was a refinement. He took one right before this one that wasn't as well framed up and he wanted to take it again.

After each shot, he hit the preview button and was checking them out to see if he captured what he was after. It was cool to see him so interested in what he was doing.

I also had my Fuji in my pocket, which gave James a chance to take pictures too. Between the 2 of them, they shot 142 frames in a matter of a few innings. It really caught their interest and got them into the game. I think I'm going to see if I can track down some cheap 3MP cameras and get them each one for Christmas. I'm going to get prints made of a few of these this week and send them to them with a note of encouragement.

Also, Tim told me that he picked up an old eMac for $60 for them, so they have a place to look at these photos and mess with them. I'd really like to see what they'll produce on their own.

Photo: Lukas

I'm waiting for a 250GB hard drive to finish formatting. I neglected to check the "quick formatting" checkbox that I normally do and am experiencing just how long it takes to format this dang thing. It's going on an hour and 10 minutes and there's still 5% left.

The drive itself has been sitting here for something like 2 months, waiting to get put into an enclosure and hooked up to the HTPC. The former enclosure was defective and the new one showed up today. I slapped the drive into the box, hooked it all up and got right to the formatting bit within about 5 minutes. Now we wait.

I've been putting it off since I joined Meritide back in May, but I finally need to grit my teeth and do it. They need a "profile", which, for those of you who haven't worked for consulting companies, is a customized resume.

I've always hated maintaining my resume, despite using it frequently over the years. This is due, in part, to the fact that everyone seems to want it in different formats. Because much of my work history has been more project oriented than company oriented (I did work for 3M and Wells Fargo while employed by Analysts International), I usually orient my resume that way.

However, lots of recruiters bug me to get it into their nice "chronological" format. Others, like the consulting profiles, want it formatted without the company names.

This led me to wonder, this time around, whether there might be a way to capture all of the information that goes on a resume seperate from the format or even a linear text document.

As I've used mindmaps and Freemind for taking notes, I wondered how it would work. I'm not done, but I'm liking the results and I thought I'd share them with you.

The idea is to capture all of the resume and career accomplishment stuff in this file and using it when it's time to write the documents. The bulk of the time spent writing a resume isn't stringing the words together, it's coming up with the information and accomplishments themselves.

You can download the mindmap file itself to mess with it. I took a couple of screenshots how I'm planning on using it.

The full view (with all of the links expanded) is cluttered and one might think you'd want to get rid of some of the links. However, if you just expand the 2 sections of the mindmap that you want to see the relationships between, you can get nice, quick views of the section you want.

Similarly, opening up just the Roles and the Companies shows which job roles I've filled at which companies.

I'm sure the final result will be a rat's nest of links, but will actually be a useful tool in keeping track of the entirety of what's going on career and business-wise. The fact that you can mess with the mindmap file via XML/XSLT is a bonus.

It's been a few weeks since I've updated you all on my bid for mayor. Things have been moving forward and I'm getting a more complete picture of the overall process.

• I'm going to be buying one batch of signs to put up wherever I can. Signs for several of the other candidates have begun appearing and I'd like to get mine out there too.
• I received to questionaires in the mail from the newspapers. One from the MN Sun (Brooklyn Center paper) and the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) for their election coverage. The MN Sun was looking for a photo and offered to take one for me. I could have taken one myself, but to go through the process better, I will have them do that. I sent both questionaires in.
• I received a note from cable Channel 12 looking to do an interview. I'm calling them today to schedule my appointment to be interviewed.
• On August 22, I'll be attending a forum on politics in the digital age (the details aren't where I am right now).
• I'm drafting my letter to the editor of the Sun. I wanted to wait a bit to hear what the other candidates were going to say before drafting mine.
• I'd love to have someone redesign the campaign site, but won't be digging into my wallet to get it done.
• It's come to my attention that I haven't edited the entries on the campaign site properly before posting. That's an unfortunate side effect of a habit I've developed over here on this main site. Quite differently from more formal writing, when I write here, I pretty much post the first draft of everything. That's because, in most cases, taking the time to edit would actually result in just not bothering in the first place. So, I post what I do as an alternative to not posting anything rather than an alternative to posting perfection.

Overall, I'm impressed with the fact that, without spending a dime more than the filing fee so far, I'm getting completely equal access to newspapers, local cable TV, etc. While I've seen a few signs so far, they've been 90% for one candidate and not that many of them.

I'm also more resolute than ever to maintain a very "human" face in this campaign. I'm going to write here and on the candidate blog and in any published communication in a very "verbal" style. I'm perfectly capable of writing polished political rhetoric. However, there are at least 3 other candidates doing exactly that. They're all making their best effort to sound like politicians.

However, they also have about 20 years on me in age and 20 years of additional community involvement. That means that if I try to run on their terms, I will certainly lose. Now, I still might lose, but it's the difference between certain defeat for doing it the "normal" way and *potential* defeat by speaking to the voters as a regular person.

We'll see.